coraline algae growing buck wild on my diy rock!!!!

[sleasia]

I made a bunch of diy rock following many threads with recipes and using 3 parts oyster shell to 1 part portland cement....there was alot of controversy as to whether coraline algae will grow on thes diy rocks....well if you use them as base rock and also use live rock which has coraline growing...it appears it will grow on diy rock....this is only 3 months (maybe less) of the diy rock and tank being set up.....

 

[laredo300c]

wow that rock looks nice.....how many pounds more/less do you think you made and what was the total $ on this project(how much on which items)

 

[turningtim]

nice work sleasia, How long did you cure them before the PH came down? Did you just do the water soak?
laredo this is very cheap. I picked up the stuff I need (cement, oyster shell, rock salt, sand) for under $40. I probably have enough stuff to make at least 100-150 lbs of rock......
Tim

 

[sleasia]

thanks loredo and turning tim....Its nice to know that it will support coraline algae...the trick of course is having some real live rock with nice coraline already on it to "seed" the tank
the oyster shells are around (I think) $9-10 a large bag, and portland cement around? i forget, but I think probably $5-10 a bag as well....the bags are big and I probably made 60-70 lbs or so... I soaked it in trash cans of tap water initially for a day or so, emptied the water and then refilled it over and over for about a week, then put it in saltwater with a powerhead for 2 weeks and then into the tank for a week before adding live rock on top. So probably, I messed with the diy rock for 3-4 weeks before actually scaping it with the real stuff....

 

[bnutz24]

Hey where did you say that thread was that $40 is less than alot of base rock around my area

 

[sleasia]

With the big bag of oyster shells and the other big bag of cement I probably could have made twice the amount of DIY Rock....I also had all the kids making them, and of course...they made weird things, like volcanoes and snowmen shaped rocks, but who cares, most are hidden under the real thing...no one knows there is a snowman shaped DIY rock under there

by the way "Oyster shells" are bought at Feed Stores...they feed them to poultry.

 

[jlem]

About 1/3 of my 150 gallon reef is DIY rock. It cost me about 20 cents per pound to make. Corraline will grow on anything inside the tank so don't know why people would think that corraline won't grow on DIY rock.